What’s new in bookstores | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Here’s what’s new in bookstores this week:

• 

Foreign Gods, Inc.,

by Okey Ndibe (Soho Press, $25) — The author follows 2000’s acclaimed

Arrows of Rain

with this tale of a down-on-his-luck New York cabbie from Nigeria. Ike comes to America, gets a good education and marries an American. But if he didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all. He can’t get a good job. He gets divorced. He barely gets by. So, he hatches a get-rich scheme: return to his village, steal the statue of the war god Ngene and become wealthy when he sells it to the art gallery Foreign Gods, Inc. Naturally, there are complications.

• 

Saints of the Shadow Bible,

by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown and Co., $26) — The internationally bestselling author returns with the 19th crime novel in his popular Inspector Rebus series. But things have changed for the detective since he came out of retirement for last year’s

Standing in Another Man’s Grave

. He’s back on the force, although demoted to Detective Sergeant, and protege Siobhan Clarke now outranks him. Plus, he’s working with his nemesis, Internal Affairs Detective Malcolm Fox, on a murder investigation from 30 years ago that may have been a cover-up.

• 

Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival,

by Jennifer Chiaverini (Dutton, $26.95) — The bestselling author (the Elm Creek Quilts series) follows 2013’s

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker

and

The Spymistress

with another historical novel inspired by real women. This one chronicles the social rivalry between Kate Chase — beautiful, charming and politically savvy — and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln during the Civil War years. For instance, while the president attended Kate’s nuptials to Rhode Island Gov. William Sprague, Mrs. Lincoln chose to skip “the pinnacle of Washington society weddings.”

— Celeste Williams